


Art can Wait (or two times Dr Black spoke to the Doctor, and one time he wished he had)

by hifi32



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternative Perspective, Canonical Character Death, City of Death References, Episode AU: s05e10 Vincent and the Doctor, Fluff, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Other, POV Third Person, Time Travel, doctor who - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23434069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hifi32/pseuds/hifi32
Summary: The first time he saw the odd man, he thought very little of him to begin with. That was probably because he was pre-occupied talking to a group of enthusiastic tourists around the Musee d’Orsay tour. Thankfully they were interested in seeing (some of) the exhibits, even though some were probably only there to pass time before they left Paris in a few hours, he knew their type.The Eleventh Doctor and Doctor Black fluff story that literally no-one asked for
Relationships: Eleventh Doctor & Doctor Black
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Art can Wait (or two times Dr Black spoke to the Doctor, and one time he wished he had)

The first time he saw the odd man, he thought very little of him to begin with. That was probably because he was pre-occupied talking to a group of enthusiastic tourists around the Musee d’Orsay tour. Thankfully they were interested in seeing (some of) the exhibits, even though some were probably only there to pass time before they left Paris in a few hours, he knew their type. Yet he didn’t care, he was very happy to ramble on about his favourite artefacts there, and as long as they weren’t rude or wandered off, he was content with talking on whether or not it was boredom or interest plastered on their faces. ‘Who knows’, he thought ‘Maybe this trip might inspire the next great artists of our time’. They approached his favourite exhibition, the Van Gogh collection. ‘What a privilege to have some of the greatest works by the greatest artist of all time here, in this gallery’ he pondered as he talked on about Van Gogh next to the self-portrait, some comparison to Shakespeare’s plays. Obviously he loved the paintings but the facts he told the tours about unfortunately never changed. As he was talking about the commercial failure of Van Gogh, he saw them. 

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the pair. A woman with hair almost as fiery as the great painter himself talking to an odd-looking man. He dressed like a cross between an elderly professor and a hipster who had forgotten exactly what being ahead of a trend meant. In other words, it was particularly eye-catching, especially the inclusion of a bright blue bow tie. hipster-professor turned to look at the ‘Church at Auvers’. He turned his attention back to the group, who were starting to get bored, so he took them over to Van Gogh’s most famous painting, walking past the odd pair. ‘Still Life with Twelve Sunflowers’, well one of them as he explained to the group. He was just getting to how much they were worth back in Van Gogh’s time, when the pair came marching over to him. He turned around when the man said something. 

“Excuse me. If I can just interrupt for one second.” The man waved a piece of paper in front of his eyes, he could make out something about a minister of art. “Sorry everyone. Routine inspection, Ministry of Art and Artiness. So erm…” The man gestured to him. Damn! Of course, he forgot his nametag this morning. 

“Doctor Black”. The man pointed to him as he said “Yes, that’s right” and then thumbed over to the ‘Church at Auvers’. 

“Do you actually know when that picture of the church was painted?” he rubbed his hands. Dear god, he gesticulates to kingdom come! Dr Black thought, before responding to the question, which was a fairly standard one. 

“Ah well, ah well, what an interesting question. Most people imagine…” 

The man interrupted again. “I’m going to have to hurry you, when was it?” Dr Black looked stunned. 

“Exactly?”

“As exactly as you can. Without a long speech, if poss. I’m in a hurry.” He looked deadly serious, whilst the ginger woman looked very quizzical about the man’s questions. 

“Well, in that case, probably somewhere between the 1st and 3rd of June.”

“What year?” Ouch, did he not realise? 

“1890, less than a year before…” He steeled himself, saying it never really got any easier. “Before he killed himself.” The man nodded with an acknowledging smile, which he took to mean ‘it’s never an easy topic to talk about’.

“Thank you, sir. Very helpful indeed.” He looked as though he was about to leave, but quickly pointed at Dr Black’s bow tie. “Nice bow tie” he said, smiling. Dr Black looked down at his bow tie as the man turned back to the woman and said “Bow Ties are cool.” She cringed at this. Dr Black decided to complement him.

“Yours is very…” but couldn’t quite find the words, the man stepped in and said “Thank you. Keep telling them stuff.” He lightly tapped him on the shoulder, before grabbing the woman’s hand and leaving. As he turned back to the group, he swore he could hear the man shout “…We need to talk to Vincent Van Gogh”.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Later on, as the Musee d’Orsay was closing down for the night, he decided to take a closer look at ‘The Church at Auvers’. Only then did he see a face, a horrifying face, in the window of the church. He stepped back, startled. But then he looked closer, it was sort of there. It seemed to be fading in and out of existence, pulsing on a whim. This can’t be right! He thought Paintings don’t just have random faces appear and disappear! He chalked it up to tiredness and went home.

But he saw it again the next day. And the day after that. In fact, it was about 4 days before the painting seemed to settle on a state. No horrific face in the window. He decided not to report it to the museum curator. He did have his reputation to uphold, after all. They were already considering letting some staff go, and he loved the Van Gogh exhibit too much to give them another reason to fire him.

Then, several days later, he saw them again, the odd couple, this time with another man. Ginger hair, ginger beard, piercing blue-grey eyes and a tweed jacket. He looked remarkably like the great artist himself. Ah, a cosplayer. Well, however people choose to express their love for the artist, I won’t judge he thought. He was taking a group of school children about the fantastic life of Vincent Van Gogh when the man from before came over. 

“Dr Black?” he called. 

“Yes?” he responded. The man put an arm around his shoulders. Oh, he was one of those highly interactive people. It made sense given the man couldn't talk for more than a sentence without flapping his arms around. This felt slightly awkward now so he stepped ahead of the man.

“We met a few days ago, I asked you about the Church at Auvers” Yes, I remember it well, how could I forget such an odd conversation? How could I forget you? 

“Yes. Glad to be of help. You were nice about my tie.” Very few people compliment my ties, it’s nice to have someone say something nice about it. Then he realised that both the man and the woman were wearing the same clothes as the last time he saw them. Either they'd brought a very small suitcase on holiday with them, or there’s something else going on. 

He’d heard tales of other mysterious goings on in other museums, mainly the Louvre. A disappearing police box in the Louvre in 1979 as a one-off display? He’d laughed at the idea. But at the same time, there was other weird things too that happened the very same day. At the time he was living in his student flat, studying art history at the Sorbonne University. He had made a ham sandwich that afternoon and placed it on his table in the kitchen. He had turned around to grab a knife to cut it in half, but when he turned back round, the bread had become mouldy, whilst the ham had been replaced by a small pig on his table. It was absolutely astonishing. 

He quickly came back to his surroundings as the man complimented the bow tie he had chosen today. “I just wondered” the man asked. “Between you and me, in 100 words, where do you think Van Gogh rates in the history of art?” What a question! He thought. 

“Well... Big question, but to me, Van Gogh is the finest painter of them all.” As he continued describing exactly why he thinks Van Gogh is the most popular and enduring painter, all his sorrow and anguish turned into the most incredible paintings in human existence, he noticed the other man behind the pair starting to cry. As he finished his speech, the professor man noticed this and ran over to the cosplayer. Dr Black swore the minister-professor said “Vincent, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Is it too much?” to the cosplayer. The cosplayer then moved over to Dr Black and hugged him saying 

“Thank you sir!” 

“You’re welcome…” 

“Sorry about the beard.” 

Dr Black thought about it for a second and started to move away. Okay, now this is getting even weirder. Hang on. Same clothes, a guy who looks like the artist, he’s crying hearing me describe the artist. It couldn’t be? Could it? That’s got to be ridiculous! I should talk to the hipster-professor-minister man. But as he turned around, all three of them had gone. I must be going mad. And he wandered back to the group of school kids, who had taken out their mobile phones and were playing some form of game on them, the clicking of the buttons were very distracting, so the teacher told them to put the phones away as he continued talking about the greatest artist who ever lived. Yet he still thought about that interaction.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The final time he saw them was a week later, sans the suspicious cosplayer. Still the same clothes. The ginger woman seemed excited to return. At least she’s enjoying the exhibit. It’s great that people can have the same renewed energy to look at these magnificent paintings again and again. He thought. However that turned into shock He continued to talk about Vincent Van Gogh as the look turned from shock to sadness. He continued the tour but was determined to talk to the professor. Something about the two of them didn’t add up, especially with that other man. She started to cry as the man pulled her into a hug. They hurried over to “The Church at Auvers”, before the woman turned back around to look at “Still Life with Twelve Sunflowers”, the professor-man following behind. They stared at the painting and he put his arm around her shoulders. 

Dr Black tried to quickly summarise a few more facts about Vincent Van Gogh before letting the group wander to have a look. By the time he hurried over to the painting, they had gone. He took a closer look. No, that couldn't be correct! ‘For Amy, Vincent’. Now that’s impossible! He thought Van Gogh never dedicated the sunflowers to anyone. He stood scratching his head, wishing that he had the chance to talk to that man. He was certain there was more to what had happened, and he wished that they could’ve provided the answers.

“I heard you’d been looking for me.” A voice called out from behind him. It was him! The man. Hold on, there was something different about him. A different coloured bow tie, red this time. And a fancy gadget around his right wrist. “Well, um, yes.”

“So many questions, I’m guessing. However I have very little time to answer them. So my name is the Doctor. No, I'm not a minister of Art and Artiness. Yes that was the great artist himself. Yes, we travelled in time and brought him here. No, I’m not the same Doctor you saw a few seconds ago, I’m from his future travelling back through his personal past as I did something incredibly stupid in his future, my past.” Dr Black reeled with the speed the Doctor talked. 

“But… why didn’t you tell me to begin with?” 

“That’s easy. You humans, too nosy, you shouldn’t all know about time travel. However I did notice you the last time we were here, and given that you inspired Vincent, I thought in retrospect that you should know what went on. You wanted to talk to me, well here I am, with…” he looked at his watch “Ooooh 30 seconds left, so go on, ask me anything.” Dr Black thought for a few seconds 

“What was he like” The man grinned. “Amazing, an absolutely delightful and unique man. And, can I just say, you inspired him. He died knowing that one day his work would have meaning.” At this, Dr Black broke down into tears, the man suddenly took on a more caring and serious tone, providing a shoulder for him to cry on. “I know, I know. It’s a lot to take in. But I wanted you know to that you changed his outlook on life, and even if it was for only a moment, it was still worth it.” His watch beeped.  
“And I’m officially out of time. It was an absolute pleasure meeting you Dr Black.” He suddenly started to fade out of existence 

"Will I ever see you again, Doctor?" Dr Black asked. The Doctor's facade dropped and a sullen mood replaced the usual joking. 

"I doubt it, I did an incredibly stupid and dangerous thing, and now I'm paying the price."

"Oh... Regardless, it was an honour to meet you, and thank you, Doctor. You gave me an experience of a lifetime."

"Anytime, or space!" And with that, the smile returned and he waves as he vanished into nothing. Dr Black just gaped at the spot where the man had been. 

He turned around and walked back into the centre of the gallery. Well, firstly, he had met his favourite artist over 120 years after they died. Said artist visited the museum and seen how famous he would be, and finally he, Dr Emile Black, had inspired Vincent Van Gogh with his words and given him peace in his final few months alive. Dr Black sighed, staring at the paintings that he adored, taking in their majesty in a way that he had never done before. Eventually he breathed in deeply, sighed, and moved back to his group to continue the tour.

**Author's Note:**

> Watching the Vincent and the Doctor simulcast:  
> Literally no-one:  
> Me: Yeah I ship the Doctor and Dr Black  
> A friend: So write it  
> And here we are
> 
> \- Yes I included 2 City of Death references in this. It's Paris, Dr Black is easily old enough to have been there in 1979, and the story is too good not to reference. Seriously, watch it if you haven't, you won't regret it.  
> -Dr Black would probably notice the differences in the paintings, he spends every day with them, I reckon he would see the changes.  
> \- I literally couldn't write a sad ending for this (I'm too soppy), so I thought "how could the Doctor meet him again?" and I realised that the Eleventh Doctor travelled back through series 5 after the Big Bang 2.0. I swear this stuff writes itself.  
> -Yes, I know that only Amy seemed to notice the Doctor as he travels backwards, but shush, I want a happy ending.  
> -Dr Black has no canonical first name, so I gave him one.


End file.
